


Welcome Screen

by infiniteviking



Category: Tron - All Media Types, Tron: Legacy (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Ficlet, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-27 22:32:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/984379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infiniteviking/pseuds/infiniteviking
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trapped in a collapsed building with a crazed import, Wulf learns that Kip isn't the unqualified beta he'd taken him to be. (Post-movie challenge ficlet; features OCs; follows Grid_Lined continuity.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome Screen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kesomon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kesomon/gifts).



The buffer utility yelled something incomprehensible, brandishing what looked like a triangular disc and all but hissing at the other two programs trapped in the collapsed building with her. Wulf already had her catalogued — Portal rerezz, foreign system, no matching language banks, probably a capable warrior, but he couldn’t treat her barely-stable cracked shoulder if he couldn’t get near her, and for a moment, it was difficult to calculate what his other fellow survivor meant by stammering, “Look, just… let me talk to her. Please?”

Staring down at Kip, it was hard for Wulf to imagine anyone less likely to hold his own against a berserk import. Though uninjured, the updater was still shaken by the terror of the rumbling walls and shifting frames. An import himself, small and slight, he’d never been a fighter; he looked sick, miserable, about to freeze or crash, and letting him anywhere near the wounded buffer program went against all of Wulf’s instincts.

But there was something in his eyes, and Wulf finally said, “All right, Kip. All right.” And then, with the slightly plaintive urgency of a medic unable to keep a potential patient out of danger, he added, “Do me a favor and _don’t_ let her kill you.”

Kip shivered, but turned toward the buffer program anyway. And to Wulf’s lasting astonishment, without outwardly appearing to change at all (except for the emotional signals flicking through his varicolored hair), he was unmistakably and almost completely a program in his element.

A few micros later, Kip was crouched before the buffer, almost in arm’s reach, somehow having made it there without triggering a fatal strike. Another few, and her threatening disc was lowered, though not yet put away, and they were… communicating through signs? Or something, though Kip kept up a steady, soothing stream of standard speech for Wulf’s benefit. Another few, and Kip had found a compatible language pack in his zip and was convincing the slowly calming program to allow it to be installed. And then, then she was speaking clearly, stumbling over unfamiliar words but haltingly explaining that her name was Dajegk and that she was a long way from home.

When she was finally persuaded to present her disc for patching, Wulf took a moment after the repair to watch Kip’s encouraging smile and the hand that rested lightly on Dajegk’s unhurt arm as her shell began to heal. He’d known dedicated recompilers with far worse bedside manners; in fact, as well he knew, he _was_ one, much more attuned to healing programs’ bodies than soothing their minds. But Kip? Underneath the initial uncertainty, Kip was a natural.

A low humming sound filtered into the room, and some of the floor cracks rezzed over; the repair crews were outside and on the job. Wulf, returning the disc to Dajegk and reaching down to help Kip to his feet, murmured, “Remind me to send all my new rerezzes down your way, will you?” and couldn’t help his mouth quirking up as Kip’s hair went russet down to the roots.  
_____

**Author's Note:**

> The OCs in this fic were developed in Grid_Lined, a post-Legacy Tron sandbox on Dreamwidth. Wulf, who looks like ~~Tom Hiddleston~~ Roy’s much-taller brother, is mine: a recompiler who runs a medical clinic in Tron City. Kip, who looks like Seth Green, is [Kesomon’s](http://archiveofourown.org/users/kesomon/pseuds/kesomon): an auto-updater from another system who assists new imports in getting settled in on the Grid. Both have pale green circuits and both are in the business of helping others, and when Kes gave me a prompt for what was supposed to be a three-sentence ficlet, this is what happened.


End file.
